A Roaming Scientist Looks at 45

Thousand Cranes (Yasunari Kawabata)

Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata
Translated by Edward G. Seidenstricker
Published in 1959 in the US, 147 pp.

A beautiful book — stark, simple, and powerful. A tale of lost and misplaced love told through the metaphor of a Japanese tea ceremony. This is a novel that could never have been conjured by an American. Delicate and carefully crafted with a natural rhythm and flow. A good read for breakups.

Quotes:

pp 131: Well, most men wouldn’t let a girl get away while they were thinking what a nice girl she was. After all, there’s only one Yukiko in this world.

pp145:
Now, even more than the evening before, he could think of no one with whom to compare her. She had become absolute, beyond comparison. She had become decision and fate.

Comments

the beautiful combination of domestic life and nature, this book is a gem. Kawabata is by all account worthy of Nobel prize for literature. This is the book I cherish and feel wonderful every time I read and re-read it.